


Maintenance Man

by hornstusksandmagic



Series: Maintenance Au [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Maintenance AU, Other, Profanity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-12-09 08:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20991662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hornstusksandmagic/pseuds/hornstusksandmagic
Summary: Maintenance Guy AU. In which Mia's AC breaks and they find out the maintenance guy (Gladiolus Amicitia) is super hot. Now they must plot to get him back. How far will they go when it comes to breaking appliances?(Started as a Fictober Ficlet)





	1. AC

“It’s not always like this,” Mia started to say as they looked around their apartment. They were lying of course. Their apartment was always a disaster. In hindsight they wished they had cleaned it prior to the maintenance guy arriving. This was doubly so given how hot the maintenance guy was. 

The maintenance guy in question, was unfairly attractive and a case of ‘wife goals, life goals’ that Mia would never reach. To start he was so tall he had to duck when entering the door, by a good amount. Then there was the fact that he built. Like lumberjack in the woods rip apart a log with his bare hands built. He also was tatted up. It looked like the wings to a larger piece that was, oh so sadly, hidden underneath his shirt. And to top it all off, eyebrow scar. Which really only added to his already gorgeous amber eyes. He was,again, unfairly pretty.

“It’s alright,” he said. 

“Damn his voice sexy too.” Mia thought

“So you’re ac is out?” He asked.

There was an uncomfortably long moment as Mia stared before the question hit. “Oh uh, yes. Turns on but no cold air.”

“Okay, should be a simple fix.” He knelt leaned into the small closet that contained the ac unit. 

This left a quality view of his ass that Mia was all too happy to stare at. “Its okay. Take your time!”

Mia moved themself to the couch and position themself for the best view of the maintenance guy. “Was it weird to watch him work?” Mia thought to themself, “probably. I should pretend to be doing something.”

They pulled out their phone and absent mindedly played a mobile game, eyes flicking up constant to see what he was up too.

“How long as it been out?” His voice echoed from the closet. 

“Two days. Not fun, but better than my last place which never sent anyone over to fix the ac.” Over the top of their phone they saw his shirt rise up exposing the bottom of his stomach, which was naturally all abs. 

He said something else, but Mia was too drawn into the little bits of the happy trail they could see that they didn’t hear him the first time. 

“Like what you see?” He repeated.  
Mia looked up from his belt line to his face where the worlds cockiest smirk was placed. “Yeah….I’m just gonna scoot this way, sorry about that.” 

“Fuck.” Mia thought. “You should not be drooling over the maintenance guy while he is at work. What are you doing?”

They heard a chuckle before more working sounds. Mia spent the rest of the time he was working smushed on the other side of the couch just out of eyesight. Metal, their black Maine Coon cat stared at them with a look that said “disappointed”.

“I don’t need your judgement.” They whispered at Metal. 

“All fixed up.” He said walking over to the thermostat and turning it back on. 

Cold air began to flow through the vents, which filled Mia was a mixture of joy and sadness. Joy because thank gods ac, sadness because hot guy was leaving. 

“Thanks!” Mia said popping up off the couch. 

“No problem.” There was still a bit of a shit eating grin on his face that Mia simultaneously hated and liked. “If you need anything, feel free to call.”

“Oh don’t worry. I will definitely be calling again. UH! In case something is broken, of course.”

He left chuckling, which left Mia kicking themself. They were also left wondering how many times they would need to run the dishwasher for it to finally give out on them. It would technically count as science if they wrote it down...


	2. Dishwasher Woes

Thirty-seven

It turns out thirty-seven was the magic number of consecutive runs of an old dishwasher before it died of abuse. Which told Mia that in less than a year they would have had to call maintenance to fix it anyways. They had simply expedited the process. 

Having completed their completely one-hundred percent scientific investigation, they could now call for maintenance. This is where hindsight reared its ugly head again, or quite possibly karma, as it took three days for maintenance to arrive. This meant for those three days Mia had to wash every dish by hand. Which they had to do because they needed to prove that their apartment wasn’t always a mess. 

But the fateful day arrived and Mia was blessed again by the gorgeous man, whose name they were absolutely going to get this time. He asked his usual questions, because of course, he was here to work. Mia answered them, to a percent of honesty. They strategically left out the part of them overworking their dishwasher. No need for him to know that. 

“So how long have you been working here?” That seemed like a sensible not creepy and small chatty question to ask him. 

“A month.” He said with a grunt. 

Poor guy was sprawled out on the floor of Mia’s kitchen, which was already small, but now it looked smaller with him on it. They were beginning to feel bad for having fucked up the dishwasher, just to get him over again. They contemplated moving the conversation along. Now that they thought about it, they didn’t want to actually bother the guy.

“You live here long?” He asked through another grunt.

“Uh, no. Six months. Prior to this I lived in hell. Found it to be unlivable so I figured I’d move up to purgatory.”

He snorted at their jokes which make them feel slightly better about the whole crawling around the floor situation, he was currently in.

“Question. Do you live here or are you contracted out?”

“Contracted out. No offense, but this place is too cramped for me.” 

Mia nodded. “Fair.”

He was now on his hands and knees halfway in the dishwasher when Metal decided this would be the perfect time to make his presence known. Mia watched in horror as their twenty pound cat leaped from the counter directly onto his back. There was an oof sound as the weight of the cat hit the center of his back.

“What did you hit me with?” He grunted.

“Nothing! It’s just my cat!” 

Mia went to grab Metal and pull the cat off the man. Metal didn’t want to move, so he decided to get a better grip on his seat, who happened to be the poor maintenance man. Mia worked quickly to pull the claws out of his back and shirt.

“I am so so so sorry.” Mia quickly shoved Metal into the bathroom and grabbed a few paper towels to try and stop any bleeding.

Luckily there was only one bad scratch, but it was a deep one. Mia lifted up his shirt a bit to get at it. “Again super sorry.” They pressed down on the scratch as if it were a wound. The man had a scar above his eye and Mia was treating this simple cat scratch as if he had been shot. 

Part of his back was now exposed and Mia could see that the tattoos on his arms came all across his back. They would make out that it was a bird of some kind, and it was very well done. They could see he was toned, and feel as well. The muscle underneath was firm and every time he moved Mia could feel his strength. They wanted to explore the rest of that back sometime. It was definitely the type of back one could dig their fingers into.

Mia heard a clicking sound from the dishwasher that pulled them from their thoughts. Apparently while Mia was panicking about their cat scaring him for life, he had finished fixing their dishwasher. 

“Are you done?” Mia asked in confusion. “Like, the cat. The scratch.”

He chuckles. “Not the first pet to attack me. Won't be the last. All fixed. Hopefully for good. Have a good day.”

“Uh wait.” Mia jumped trying to stop him before he got to the door. “What's your name? You know, so I can give you a good review.” 

“Gladio.”

Mia closed the door behind Gladio, and slumped. So the plan to get him back worked, it was just everything that followed that was a disaster. They heard a meow from the bathroom. Mia walked over to the door and opened it. Metal came out purring and rubbing against Mia’s legs. “You’re a shit wingman you know that.”


	3. Metal Mayhem

Metal did not like receiving sass about his “wingman skills.” He didn’t like it so much, he decided to put forth his best wingman skills. That was the only thing Mia could think of when they woke up early one morning to the sound of crashing followed by howling cat. What Mia could deduce from the chaos of broken lights was that Metal had decided that swinging on the small light that hung in the middle of the main room had to be done. Of course the cheap plaster and screws could not hold his hefty form and he brought the whole light down, along with some electrical wiring. 

Mia sighed heavily, knowing what they now had to do, a mere two days after having their dishwasher fixed. They had his name, they didn’t need him to come back. Mia had just planned on trying to find him on social media like the weird millennial they were, but no, instead they had to call for maintenance and wait in shame for him to show up again. 

They had hoped, and slight prayed, it would be anyone else, but no, it was in fact Gladio. He was already grinning when Mia opened the door. Mia had the urge to slam the door in his face, but goddamn he was pretty. It didn’t help that he was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest, accentuating his musculature. 

“Miss me already?” 

“Psh, no. But my cat did.” Mia wasn’t technically lying. This time it had been Metal’s fault. 

“Uh huh.” He walked past them and stared up at the hole in the ceiling and what remained of the light fixture. “Oh, uh, please tell me you didn’t rip down the light.”

Mia turned bright red. “What no! I can’t even reach that light. Like okay the dishwasher was helped along, but this whole ass apartment is falling apart. It was bound to break eventually, but the light was his fault.”

Mia pointed at Metal who meowed happily with his tail high as he rubbed against Gladio’s leg.

Gladio look over at Mia, eyes filled with a smile, “dishwasher was helped along?”

Mia stopped dead in their tracks. “...I said no such thing.”

“You did.”

Mia let out a series of incoherent sounds before they managed to put together words, “I, no, you can’t prove anything. Fix my light!” They grabbed Metal and stormed off to their room. They didn’t need to be in there while he was working. How long would it take to fix a light anyways?

The answer to that question was long enough for Mia’s stomach to start growling. At first they tried to ignore it, but the longer they ignored it the louder it got and the more obvious the hunger pains became. This meant they had to leave their room, and venture out. 

The goal was not to make eye contact. If they didn’t make eye contact, they wouldn’t come face to face with their shame. That was easier said than done however. Mia had a naturally curious nature, and partially wanted to know what was going on. That, and out of the corner of their eye, they could plainly see he had been sweating, as his shirt now clung to his muscular form. 

From the peaks they snuck, the light had been replaced and put up, and he was now plastering the ceiling. Their whole living room was covered in plastic, and bits of plaster stuck to his arms and beard. 

Mia continued to watch, as they pretended to grab food. It appeared he was at the cleanup phase. Removing the ladder, plaster, tools and plastic from Mia’s apartment. Mia assumed once he got the plastic out, that he would just go on to his next job, but they could hear the heavy footsteps coming up the stairs that led to their apartment. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to show that they weren’t a complete weirdo, and offer him some water. 

Mia waited for Gladio to enter the apartment again. It looked like he was double checking that he had everything, before he walked over to them. Mia handed him a glass of water, which he took and drank swiftly. He seemed slightly agitated, which was not what Mia had wanted. 

“So its fixed.” Gladio sighed, looking up at the ceiling. “But not well. Limited resources means I can’t do a proper fix. You aren’t wrong about this place falling apart, so there was probably no need to break you dishwasher. How did you do that by the way?”

“I ran it back to back thirty-seven times.”

Gladio looked at them blanked faced. “Thirty-seven.”

“Honestly thought it would have taken less time, but it surprised me.”

“You ran it thirty-seven times. In a row. Just to get me back here?” 

Mia hesitated. “Uh well. Kinda. I mean. I didn’t catch your name the first time…”

Gladio burst into laughter. “You know how crazy that sounds right?”

“Yeah I know, but like what where the odds that you would come back. I mean other people work here too right?” Mia was glad he seemed to be taking this in good humor.

Gladio nodded. “Yeah other people do, but I, uh, purposely took your address the last two times.”

“Ha!” Mia said pointing a finger at his chest, “you’re just as guilty as me.”

“I am.” Gladio he said with a smile as he pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to Mia. “Here, my number. How about the next time we meet up, it's not me fixing something. Text me anytime.”

Mia took the card, feeling slightly victorious. “Yeah I would like that.”

“Now. I must go and get yelled at by an old lady who doesn’t understand how her thermostat works ...again.” 

Mia closed the door behind Gladio, their heart racing with excitement. They ran over to Metal, who was cleaning himself on the kitchen counter. Mia scooped him up in their arms and smooshed their face into his fur. “I’m sorry for everything I have said. You are best wingman.”


End file.
